The Japanese Experience

Friday, December 13, 2013

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Thanksgiving!!!

サンクスギビングはたのしくてよかったです。うちにかえりにかぞくとあいました。たくさんいいたべものをたべてたくさんいいのみものをのみました。私はアップルサイダーやチーズケーキがとても好きです。そして、たくさんねてえいがとアニメをみました。I Love You Manとカウボーイビバップはおもしろいです。いま、わたしはプリンストンだいがくにかえりました。

Monday, December 2, 2013

In terms of my pronunciation exercises, this past semester has gone very well. I consistently pronounce words correctly and as of recently I have been able to shadow anime despite the speed of the speakers. I think my success can be attributed to achieving my goals of going to office hours 3-5 times a week and attending the language tables every week. One problem I find that I often have though is remembering the pitch patterns of words and phrases. Even if I articulate words correctly, my pitch sometimes is simply wrong. In order to accomplish my goal of becoming a fluent, persuasive, native sounding, confident speaker, I need to practice reciting pitch patterns more while doing PE listening exercise, extra pronunciation exercises, memorizing vocab, etc. If I can get the pitch down, my speech will be able to sound very natural. I also plan to continue attending office hours and language table regularly as well as supplemental tutoring sessions.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxThYN20J4ZZ07e1E7GZYUuI9JGDDP_cIRoFaSy52RcidsWTlkv_rOOPfQlXjEDdTf1PXtQuQS8QCphMDndT-pUcZcIYrTiDwKJ_0rHId25BLOJRpxBgK08VTtgsgC3zZTaDqHZRr4WLEi/s1600-r/torii700x225b.jpg

Monday, November 25, 2013

おいしいだいふく！

Sunday, November 24, 2013

とてもかっこいいおんがくビデオ！

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

PE Reflection

I really have liked these PE exercises. They vary from week to week, switching between listening and speaking exercises, and I definitely feel my familiarity with the Japanese language growing as I do them more and more. In terms of speaking exercises, I've done two conversations and a tongue twister exercise. I like the conversation exercises since it helps me to work on basic communication skills that I can't develop on my own. The tongue twisters were fun though. My roommates made fun of how silly they sounded when I was working on them in my dorm. We still joke around about it every now and then. I've noticed my ability to pronounce Japanese words grow along with a significant boost to my speed, which I am very proud of. However, I'm still not at the natural-speaker level yet even with words and phrases I know. My goal for the rest of the semester will be to improve the overall naturalness of my speaking by working with the harder PE shadowing materials such as anime, going to Office Hours 3-5 times a week, attending language table every week, and working with my Japanese tutor. By the end of the semester, I want to be able to speak the material I know with the ease of a native speaker!

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/075/9/0/ganbatte_by_lilkitty-d3brs9d.png

I'm back from あきやすみ！

おはよう、

　　　あきやすみはいいですした。わたしはうちにかえりました。ニュージャージーのプレインスボロからきました。わたしはたくさんあにめをみました。そしてまいばんたくさんねました。わたしはピッツバーグ大学とメリーランド大学にいきました。わたしはともだちをあいました。As you can see, I did a lot over fall break. Not only was I able to relax a lot at home (which involved watching very large quantities of anime), but I was also able to visit some of my friends at their colleges. I really appreciated having such a long あきやすみ. It gave me a lot of time to recover from midterms and reflect on how I can do better in this last half of the semester. Now I'm ready to hit the ground running. がんばって！